A multi-class lane-changing advisory system for freeway merging sections using cooperative ITSA multi-class lane-changing advisory system for freeway merging sections using cooperative ITS Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2023-04-282022enCooperative intelligent transportation systems (C-ITS) support the exchange of information between vehicles and infrastructure (V2I or I2V). This paper presents an in-vehicle C-ITS application to improve traffic efficiency around a merging section. The application balances the distribution of traffic over the available lanes of a freeway, by issuing targeted lane-changing advice to a selection of vehicles. We add to existing research by embedding multiple vehicle classes in the lane-changing advisory framework. We use a multi-class multi-lane macroscopic traffic flow model to design a feedback-feedforward control law that is based on a linear quadratic regulator (LQR). The weights of the LQR controller are fine-tuned using a response surface method. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated using a microscopic traffic simulator. The results indicate that the multi-class lane-changing advisory system is able to suppress shockwaves in traffic flow and can significantly alleviate congestion. Besides bringing substantial travel time benefits around merging sections of up to nearly 21%, the system dramatically reduces the variance of travel time losses in the system. The proposed system also seems to improve travel times for mainline and ramp vehicles by nearly 20% and 42%, respectively.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems23915121-15132 Sharma Salil Papamichail Ioannis Παπαμιχαηλ Ιωαννης Nadi Ali van Lint Hans Tavasszy, Lorant A Snelder, Maaike, 1980- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Lane-changing advisory LQR control method Merging section Multi-class Traffic flow modeling Cooperative intelligent transportation system